Pamela, Volume II eBook

“Well, then, my dearest,” said he, “we
will forgive one another? but take this with you,
that it is my love to you that makes me more delicate
than otherwise I should be; and you have inured me
so much to a faultless conduct, that I can hardly
bear with natural infirmities from you.—­But,”
giving me another tap, “get you gone; I leave
you to your recollection; and let me know what fruits
it produces: for I must not be put off with a
half-compliance; I must have your whole will with
me, if possible.”

So I went up, and recollecting every thing, sacrificed
to my sex, as Mr. B. calls it, when he talks of
a wife’s reluctance to yield a favourite point:
for I shed many tears, because my heart was set upon
it.

And so, my dear parents, twenty charming ideas and
pleasures I had formed to myself, are vanished from
me, and my measures are quite broken. But after
my heart was relieved by my eye, I was lighter and
easier. And the result is, we have heard of a
good sort of woman, that is to be my poor baby’s
mother, when it comes; so your kindly-offered
enquiries are needless, I believe.

’Tis well for our sex in general, that there
are not many husbands who distinguish thus nicely.
For, I doubt, there are but very few so well entitled
to their ladies’ observances as Mr. B. is to
mine, and who would act so generously and so tenderly
by a wife as he does, in every material instance on
which the happiness of life depends.

But we are quite reconciled; although as I said, upon
his own terms: and so I can still style myself,
my dear honoured parents, your happy, as well as
your dutiful daughter, P.B.

LETTER XLVIII

From Lady Davers to Mrs. B.

My Dear Pamela,

I have sent you a present, the completest I could
procure, of every thing that may suit your approaching
happy circumstance; as I hope it will be to you, and
to us all: but it is with a hope annexed, that
although both sexes are thought of in it, you will
not put us off with a girl: no, child, we will
not permit you, may we have our wills, to think
of giving us a girl, till you have presented us with
half a dozen fine boys. For our line is gone
so low, we expect that human security from you in
your first seven years, or we shall be disappointed.

I will now give you their names, if my brother and
you approve of them: your first shall be BILLY;
my Lord Davers, and the Earl of C——­,
godfathers; and it must be doubly godmothered too,
or I am afraid the countess and I shall fall out about
it. Your second DAVERS; be sure remember that.—­Your
third, CHARLEY; your fourth, JEMMY; your fifth, HARRY;
your sixth—­DUDLEY, if you will—­and
your girl, if you had not rather call it PAMELA, shall
be called BARBARA.—­The rest name as you
please.—­And so, my dear, I wish all seven
happily over with you.